Some thirteen years after the event, the shadow of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan and the Pentagon still darkens our world.
The legacy of that terrible day has impacted not only our foreign policy, bequeathing
to a new generation an apparently endless "war on terrorism," it also
has led directly to what is arguably the most massive assault on our civil liberties
since the Alien and Sedition Acts. Getting all the information about what happened
that day – and why it happened – is key to understanding the course we have
taken since.

If you actually take the time to read the report, all goes along swimmingly
(except for occasional redactions) until you get to p. 369, whereupon the text
is blacked out for the next twenty-eight pages.

What is in the twenty-eight censored pages? You aren’t allowed to know that,
but members of Congress can read them provided they write to the heads of the
Senate and House intelligence committees and get permission. If such is granted,
they are escorted into a soundproof carefully guarded room in the company of
various spooks, where they get to read the material: they aren’t allowed to
take notes.

Do you get the impression someone has something to hide?

The censored section is entitled "Finding, Discussion and Narrative Regarding
Certain Sensitive National Security Matters," and the introduction – left
largely intact – is instructive:

"Through its investigation, the Joint Inquiry developed information
suggesting specific sources of foreign support for some of the September 11
hijackers while they were in the United States. The Joint Inquiry’s review confirmed
that the Intelligence Community also has information, much of which has
yet to be independently verified, concerning these potential sources of
support. In their testimony, neither CIA nor FBI officials were able to
address definitively the extent of such support for the hijackers globally or
within the United States or the extent to which such support, if it exists,
is knowing or inadvertent in nature."

The alleged Saudi connection to the 9/11 attacks has had a lot of play: it
is widely believed that in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 special permission
was given to fly members of the Saudi royal family out of the country when the
whole nation was in lockdown. This raised suspicions, along with the incontrovertible
fact that the majority of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens. In a 2002
interview with Gwen Ifill on PBS, Senator Bob Graham of Florida, then on the
Senate Intelligence Committee, went
public with the news that foreign governments were in on the 9/11 attacks:

"GWEN IFILL: “Senator Graham, are there elements in this report, which
are classified that Americans should know about but can’t?”

SEN. BOB GRAHAM: “Yes, going back to your question about what was the greatest
surprise. I agree with what Senator Shelby said the degree to which agencies
were not communicating was certainly a surprise but also I was surprised at
the evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating the
activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States.”

In the years since his retirement, Sen. Graham has been steadily pounding away
at this point, and his persistence has usually been interpreted as a demand
to reveal the extent of Saudi complicity in the attacks. And while the Saudis
may well have been involved, either directly or otherwise, I would bring your
attention to Graham’s statement and the introduction to the Joint Inquiry report,
which indicate that more than one foreign government was involved. But if it
wasn’t just the Saudis, then who else was involved?

We don’t have to rely on pure speculation, in spite of the fact that us ordinary
peons in flyover country aren’t allowed to read those 28 pages. That’s because
a few members of Congress have taken the trouble to apply for permission to
read them, including Representatives Walter Jones (R-North Carolina), Tom Massie
(R-Kentucky), and Stephen Lynch (D-Massachusetts). According to their own accounts,
they came out of that soundproof spy-proof room reeling. Here’s what Jones says:

"I was absolutely shocked by what I read. What was so surprising was
that those whom we thought we could trust really disappointed me…It does not
deal with national security per se; it is more about relationships. The information
is critical to our foreign policy moving forward and should thus be available
to the American people. If the 9/11 hijackers had outside help – particularly
from one or more foreign governments – the press and the public have a right
to know what our government has or has not done to bring justice to the perpetrators."

"One or more foreign governments," eh? Who in the Middle East – or
anywhere else, for that matter – are among "those whom we thought we could
trust"? That doesn’t sound like the Saudis to me. Would anyone really be
surprised or "disappointed" to learn that they were playing games
behind our back?

"I had to stop every two or three pages and rearrange my perception
of history. And it’s that fundamental – those 28 pages….It certainly changes
your view of the Middle East."

Would the discovery of Saudi perfidy "change your view of the Middle East"
in a "fundamental" way? The Kingdom has been exporting its fanatic
brand of Wahabism – fundamentalist Sunni ideology – spreading terrorism and
political instability across the region for many years. So this is nothing new:
and for those of us old enough to remember the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s,
their two-timing nature is taken for granted.

Graham has been explicit in accusing the Saudis of financing at least some
of the 9/11 hijackers, as well as facilitating their entry into the United States.
However, the Joint Inquiry indicates that more than this was involved: the phrase
"foreign support for some of the September 11 hijackers while they were
in the United States" jumps out at me, at least implying that it wasn’t
just financing – after all, how much did the 9/11 attacks actually cost Al Qaeda
in terms of dollars and cents? – but also that operational assistance was given
on the ground.

Given – by whom?

In the wake of 9/11, while the smoke from the downed World Trade Building was
still clouding the skies over Manhattan, I
noticed a news item in the Washington Post that rang all kinds of
alarm bells, or at least it should have – although our vaunted Fourth Estate
was too busy signing on to the newly-minted "war on terrorism" to
notice. The story was headlined "Government
Calls Several Cases ‘of Special Interest,’ Meaning Related to Post-Attacks Investigation."
Reporter John Mintz related that at least 60 Israelis "of special interest
to the government" had been rounded up and that several of these had training
in counter-terrorist techniques. As I noted at the time:

"Well, spying is indeed a time-honored tradition, and something tells
me these guys are no ordinary tourists, but since the US Government is keeping
mum about everything connected with this investigation, we just don’t know.
In rounding up untold hundreds of mostly Arab Muslim men, and interviewing thousands
more, the Ashcroft Sweep is clearly designed to gather information that might
lead them to the remaining conspirators. It could be that the Israelis, or at
least some of them, fall into this category: while not being directly involved,
maybe they know something. Nothing else could account for the government’s ‘special
interest.’"

Not long after that, in the hard winter of 2001, Fox News ran a four-part series
– part 1,
part 2,
part 3,
and part
4 – reported by Carl Cameron that let the cat out of the bag. Part
one started out with a bang:

"Since September 11, more than 60 Israelis have been arrested or detained,
either under the new patriot anti-terrorism law, or for immigration violations.
A handful of active Israeli military were among those detained, according to
investigators, who say some of the detainees also failed polygraph questions
when asked about alleged surveillance activities against and in the United States.

"There is no indication that the Israelis were involved in the 9-11
attacks, but investigators suspect that the Israelis may have gathered intelligence
about the attacks in advance, and not shared it. A highly placed investigator
said there are ‘tie-ins.’ But when asked for details, he flatly refused to describe
them, saying, ‘evidence linking these Israelis to 9-11 is classified. I cannot
tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It’s classified information.’"

The Fox series detailed an extensive and highly sophisticated Israeli spy network inside the US – including not only hundreds of agents on the ground masquerading
as "art students," but also hi-tech spying tapping into our phone
system and US eavesdropping capabilities – with the first part ending in this
dialogue between Cameron and Fox News anchor Brit Hume:

“HUME: Carl, what about this question of advanced knowledge of what
was going to happen on 9-11? How clear are investigators that some Israeli agents
may have known something?

CAMERON: It’s very explosive information, obviously, and there’s a great
deal of evidence that they say they have collected – none of it necessarily
conclusive. It’s more when they put it all together. A bigger question, they
say, is how could they not have known? Almost a direct quote."

Days after the broadcast of part four, the whole series disappeared from the
Fox News site. The powerful pro-Israel lobby went
after reporter Cameron, accusing him of anti-Semitism on account of his
upbringing: he had grown up, in part, in the Middle East, where his father was
an archeologist working in Iran. Pressure was applied to media organizations
not to do any follow up reporting on this story of Israeli complicity.

Yet some major media organizations did pursue the story: Le Monde did
a piece that added some
new information:

"Six of the intercepted “students” had a cellular telephone bought
by an Israeli ex-vice-consul in the United States. Two others, at an unspecified
time, arrived in Miami by direct flight from Hamburg, and went to the residence
of an FBI agent, to try to sell him artwork, left again for the Chicago airport
to go to the residence of an agent of the justice department, then again took
a plane directly for Toronto – all in one day.

"More than a third of these ‘students,’ who, according to the report,
moved in at least 42 American cities, stated they resided in Florida. Five at
least were intercepted in Hollywood, and two in Fort Lauderdale. Hollywood is
a town of 25,000 inhabitants to the north of Miami, close to Fort Lauderdale.
At least 10 of the 19 terrorists of 9/11 were residing in Florida."

Noting that Hollywood, Florida, was the stomping grounds of "four of the
five members of the group that diverted American Airlines flight number 11,"
including ringleader Mohammed Atta, and going on to link others to the same
area, Le Monde concluded:

"This convergence is, inter alia, the origin of the American conviction
that one of the tasks of the Israeli ‘students’ would have been to track the
Al-Qaida terrorists on their territory, without informing the federal authorities
of the existence of the plot."

Salon.com did an excellent
follow up by ace reporter Christopher Ketcham, and some others followed
suit, but only here at Antiwar.com did we continue to consistently report on
this important story – arguably, along with the Snowden revelations, one of
the biggest stories in the history of modern journalism.

When I first started writing about the question of Israeli complicity in the
9/11 attacks, I was told that I would henceforth be consigned to the margins:
I was a "truther," a crackpot, and, naturally, an "anti-Semite."
But why, I asked, would Fox News – surely one of the most pro-Israel news organizations
on the planet – have run a four-part series pointing the finger directly at
Israel if it didn’t comport with the facts? Why is this a "conspiracy theory"
if the CIA’s own National Counterintelligence Center was concerned enough about
those "art students" to post a
warning about them on its official web site? The NCC noted, in March, 2001:

“In the past six weeks, employees in federal office buildings located throughout
the United States have reported suspicious activities connected with individuals
representing themselves as foreign students selling or delivering artwork. Employees
have observed both males and females attempting to bypass facility security
and enter federal buildings.”

Ketcham, writing in Salon, theorized that the "art students" were
a ploy to divert attention away from the hijackers, and, perhaps, to simultaneously
shield Atta and his crew from US counterintelligence.

It would serve the Israelis well to concentrate exclusively on the alleged
Saudi connection to 9/11, and this has been the case so far. Yet the public
statements of those who have actually seen the censored 28 pages in the Joint
Inquiry report do not comport with this narrow focus. What else other than evidence
of Israeli complicity in the 9/11 terrorist attacks would cause these members
of Congress to "rearrange" their "perception of history"?
Can you think of a better description of the Israelis than "those whom
we thought we could trust," as Rep. Jones put it?

I would also note that both Massie and Jones took the unusual step of voting
"no" on funding the Israeli "Iron Dome" antimissile system,
along with a tiny minority in both parties. Why do you suppose that is?

So the question boils down to – Why? Why would the Israelis, who were
tracking the terrorists on our territory, not only fail to let us know but perhaps
act to shield them from law enforcement’s gaze? The answer, I believe, is indicated
by the roleplayed by Israel since the attacks in agitating for US military
action in the Middle East. In 2003, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, anticipating
the Iraq war, declared
that Syria, Iran, and Libya had to be "disarmed" as well. And Benjamin
Netanyahu, speaking to a conference at Bar Ilan University in 2008, was more
direct. As reportedby Israeli news outlets Ha’aretz and Ma’ariv:

“’We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers
and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq,’ Ma’ariv quoted the former
prime minister as saying. He reportedly added that these events ‘swung American
public opinion in our favor.’”

What’s in the 28 censored pages of the Joint Inquiry into 9/11? We don’t know
for sure – but if Israel is involved, then we do know why they won’t let us
read those pages.

Representatives Jones, Lynch, and Massie have sparked a movement to declassify
the 28 pages: go here for more information.
This is a fight we need to win – but we can only do it by raising a huge stink.
Call or write your congressional representatives and urge them to join the three
congressmen who are fighting for your right to know. And spread the word.

If we had any independent media, some intrepid reporters surely could track down the sources of the redacted section and get them to say something.

So another question is who, how, and why did someone get those pages to be redacted? Who is complicit in the coverup of the redacted "activities"? Since the cowardly attack on the USS Liberty, it's clear to the American people just how high the "influence" of israel reaches to cover up their crimes and keep the truth from the American people. Or in other words that at the highest level of US power sit people who will turn against their country in a split second and obey order from israel/aipac for reasons unknown. That was a long time ago. Israel's control over the US certainly hasn't diminished over the decades. What kind of sole superpower is nothing but a pathetic whore to some tiny piece of miserable desert?

I don't think big oil is the problem. Big oil wants a peaceful region so it can make a lot of money. The Israeli Lobby and the oil lobby used to be against each other. After 9/11 Cheney got them to work together. I think the oil companies are sick to death of Israel. It has stirred up the Middle East for 70 years. Oil would still be only a few dollars a barrel if it wasn't for Israel. Another great essay by Justin. I think Murdoch used that Cameron series to blackmail the Israeli's. He didn't want to end up like another MOSSAD asset Robert Maxwell. The Israeli's have Murdoch and most other of the main stream in their pockets. They are trying to get better control of the internet. So far they have only been partially successful.

And as the Israeli "art students" were being questioned the Anthrax attacks began. As Congress started to demand answers about 9/11 they were hit. Weaponized Anthrax that could only have come from 3 countries … the US, Russia or Israel …

You can be sure that most of those high jackers were from Saudi Arabia? Then they started to blame Wahhabis whom are very good friends with at time president George W. Bush where even some them were staying at WH and left the country during the attack when no other air line was given permission to fly, then they started blaming Iraq where the same president killed more then a million Iraqi without finding any evidence of WMD which the problem has grown to ISIS were Joe Biden idea is to divid Iraq where Saudis ( man they are everywhere you look, the Saudis names just pups up) have demanded among other thing for regime change is Syria and in Libya where again a american diplomat was involved, Hillary Clinton. Looking at all the evidence I think both USG and Saudis cooperating to mor then a degree when it comes to 9/11 and other issues relating and resulting from 9/11, but one should not forget Israel or for that matter the English Tony Blair. After all, all three been beneficial in regime change in Iraq, then Libya and now Syria.

the idea that a ragtag bunch of saudis planned this operation without any "official" help is absurd beyond the belief. i question what type of brainwashed, slack jawed mouth breather would actually believe such utter and total bullsh*t. we need to look no further than our own criminal syndicate that calls itself our government for starters. then our plucky "friends" the saudis and israelis whose fingerprints have been all over this false flag since day 1.

Those buildings were brought down by explosives. Fire does not melt steel or iron. The building fell into its own foot print. Check out 9/11 Truth and in some of the videos and you can see molten steel running down the sides of the building. A fireman that was on the first floor of the the basement said he and others heard an explosion and the floor buckled upwards. 9/11 was a crime and yet Bush had all the wreckage removed the day after the "attack." The building was constructed to withstand multiple plane strikes. Yup

The Zionist media wants to concentrate on the 'Saudi Connection'–ignoring the CIA-visa mill that provided the papers for 'terrorists'. They also want us to believe that the Saudis and friends made famous by the Regime for the attacks were indeed the culprits and not the patsies. Note, that once the propaganda objectives were achieved, the Regime's PR people don't explore the ramifications of still living hijackers. We had warnings from a baker's dozen intel services that something big was coming…This means 'al CIA-da' was a sieve…and there were assets of the organization that had a line right to the command and control levels of the organization. This was enough to do it serious damage…but, didn't. The money men were all tied to Western Intel's Pakistani front.

Pure foreign responsibility does not explain why many of the patsies had addresses on US military posts or received training at the Presidio of Monterey–where a dean of students was threatened with courts martial if he continued to flap his jaws about their presence.

Elements of the Bush Regime working with their Israeli counterparts were responsible for this. It is the same cooperation we saw in the murder of our servicemen aboard the USS LIBERTY between the murdering 'Big Nose Baines' and the Israelis.

Many on the Cover-up Commission won't even stand behind their work. The explanation of the collapse of the towers is absurd. The anthrax investi-joke a disgrace and the response of the American people damning…as it shows just what kind of stupid, cowardly dogs our fellow citizens are…and explains why they remain the abject servants of War Street and its crack whores in Washington.

At the best Israelis knew about the attacks and remained silent; at the worst they were complicit. But, involved they were. Yet, since they control the Congress, The Executive, the broadcast and print media as well as Hollywood this cover up will always be suppressed and those who attempt to uncover or reveal the truth will be labeled Anti-Semites or lunatic conspiracy theorists. Any attempt will be met by pink slips for reporters or loss of seat for politicians. Meanwhile the right wing crazies worry about the border when the United States has already been taken over by a foreign power–Israel.

It wasn't the Saudis in charge of security at the World Trade Center and all the airports where the "hijackers" departed from. There was only one foreign government with the means and opportunity to wire three skyscrapers for controlled demolition, and it wasn't Saudi Arabia. If these 28 pages merely attempt to implicate Saudi Arabia, then it is dangerously misleading!

Small correction: "Why would the Israelis, who were tracking the Israelis on our territory…"

That surely must have been about Israelis tracking Saudis or suspected terrorists?

Anyway excellent article and proper exposure of this topic might be very well be the game changer. Redefining Western relationships with Israel would change the geopolitical landscape in a couple of profound ways. The only problem remaining is the nuclear arsenal in Israel which would be the second topic the world needs to be informed about: its presence as established and admitted fact and especially about the exact origination. Not to mention how this overarching, looming presence will keep providing a strong sense of justification for all kinds of radical militants in the area. That's the nature of any extreme security implied by any "dome" or "wall" after all.

One other issue, more about the content itself. It's about the article from IBTimes linked with "Here’s what Jones says: "I was absolutely shocked by what I read. ….. particularly from one or more foreign governments …"

The Internation Business article only talks about the Saoedi connections in quite some detail. As Justin mentioned the topic is "usually been interpreted as a demand to reveal the extent of Saudi complicity in the attacks". But the article quotes Lynch and Jones but also the Schumer letter and Graham, raising the stong impression it's mostly about Saudi Arabia. No mention or hint of Israel at all.

Although it remains to be seen what Jones exactly meant with one or more governments, so far it reads as the quote came from an article outlining in some detail only the Saudi complicity and does not supply any indication that any of the activist senators were after anything else. In that sense it remains tricky to quote from a source which is concluding something different based on their own sources and analysis of the statements they appear to have recorded in person.

Everyone should have known exactly who was involved when they caught the "dancing Israelis" filming In real time, the destruction of the Twin Towers and celebrating this act. They were caught red-handed and were quickly and quietly returned to Israel. They should have been water-boarded until they told the whole truth or grew gills. But, thank-you, Justin, for addressing this issue. When the whole 9-11 mess gets aired out, this country will start to be less corrupt and more of a place worth loving again.

I wonder if a trillion dollar lawsuit could be filed against Israel by the families of those who died in the towers and the pentagon, if the evidence is truly there? Surely if Israel knew the attacks were going to happen and remained silent they could be charged as co conspirators and held legally liable for all those who needlessly died.

Everyday we see large settlements won against, for instance an apartment building owner knew the elevator was faulty and said nothing resulting in the deaths of innocent people. The families of those who died on 9-11 deserve to be compensated by Israel if it can be proven Israeli intelligence was knowledgeable of the pending attack and actually celebrated as the planes flew into the towers.

But it was traced to a lab in the US. And it wasn't used for such a trivial purpose as to stop enquiry about the 9/11 building implosions which were attributed to plane hits (that's why they had to leave out the third one, WTC 7, from the same consideration). No, the anthrax led directly to a reason to go to war against Saddam and his "WMD stockpile". Because it affected the mail service itself in the US, it was very useful in drawing in anyone who looked at New York as an isolated one-off which could be dismissed because after all the hijackers themselves were dead. The anthrax was all about creating a sinister sense that we were under devious, ongoing attack and Saddam was behind it. Colin Powell took a vial of white powder to the UN and shook it in everyone's faces as a demonstration of how a powerful evil man could control us if we did not kill him.

why don't one, or all of these congressmen just come out and spill what they read in those documents ? surely it's worth losing your job or serving some time for ? i mean, this is huge! anybody know what the punishment would likely be if they did ? they'd have massive support.

If it every comes to exposing them, the collateral damage to innocent Jews will be comparable to the damage to civilians in Gaza.

In my opinion, the entire society needs a deep change in consciousness at every level, and most of all, it needs truth from which might possibly follow reconciliation. Americans have got to stop thinking of themselves as victims, first of all, and using that as Israel does to go after Muslims. It isn't our schtick to be victims – but it sure helps the powerful to control us.

The only connection Saudi's had with 9/11 was providing stolen passports that were stolen by Israeli agents who planted them in various locations to leave the impression Saudi nationals boarded the airliners as hi-jackers. This is partially proven by the fact that several of the supposed hi-jackers are still alive and residing in the Middle East.

Yes, and it's a government with mixed motives, not all of them patriotic.

Some of it is a two-fer – Americans are taught to hate Muslims and that's good for Israel. But they are told it's okay to invade Iraq and any other country with oil resources, which is good for both Wall Street and oil profiteers. I would say that the underlying fact is Peak Oil, because without the knowledge that oil is a finite resource, we would not be developing our own resources at home, at great expense to the environment wherever we frack or do deep drilling. The world needs to develop alternatives, but its way of life is still heavily based on oil supplies, and now we are in competition with an emergent China.

Yrs. it is pure diversion . This is the way ( Saudi Royals were flown out ) to make citizen believe they and only they ( Saudi ) have something to hide . One wonders of someone with this propaganda value in mind came up with the decision to get the Saudi out. Saudi could have felt threatened or persuaded to leave. It is not difficult to trace where those Saudi lived,what they did,what websites or places visited,what flight club they patronized ,what banks they used,what transactions they carried. Who they called and what mosques they prayed at and who their friends were . It will. To be difficult to find out what they did and when after departing US.
Saudi royals have been involved in terrorism but mostly to serve broader US interest .

Israel deliberately attacked the USS Liberty in 1967 killing 34 crew members and wounding 171 in a likely botched false flag operation. The Johnson administration covered that up as did subsequent administrations. Survivors, one of whom I served with, were threatened with court martial if they spoke up about it. In 1975, Shimon Peres offered to sell nuclear warheads to South Africa. Israel has conducted numerous intelligence operations against this country, from the venal, Jonathan Pollard, to the highest levels of government in the Lawrence Franklin espionage scandal. I would not put anything past Israel, nor would I underestimate this nation's craven response,

But the continued focus on Saudi by media , by Neocons,and the threat of using force against Saudi following 911 points to one agenda that is not to openly investigate 911 ( including not to try the defendants in open court , not to question why so many evidences on tapes on so many occasions were destroyed ) and second to let the citizen accept the information that 911 had no connections to Israel. Redacted material has also been explained by the neocons as an attempt to protect Saudi ,incidentally trying to prove how powerful Saudi lobby or Oil lobby is.

Oh for God's sake. The controlled demolition theory is complete joke and does a great disservice to genuine seekers of truth.

WTC7 collapsed due to damage from the twin towers' collapse. FDNY on the scene reported that WTC7 would collapse from damage they observed with their own eyes. So is teh FDNY complicit in the coverup of an event that killed 343 of their comrades? No one know understands the brotherhood of firefighters would suggest something so insane.

Richard–how about the white van caught crossing Washington bridge with two Israelie dressed as Arabs and van positive residues of explosives? That is nothing to what was painted at both sides of the Van–Airliner about to hit WTC 1.

With a handful of exceptions, the US media is as service as any state-run media in the most totalitarian of regimes.

The US is attacked by Saudis, with apparent let-it-happen complicity of our "friends" in Israel, and instead the public's ire is directed at Afghans and Iraqis.

Israel knew 9/11 would benefit them in imense ways – namely the insertion of US troops into the Middle East with orders to destroy Israel's enemies and potential rivals. The only thing that kept the mission from being completed was the arrogance and incompetence of war planners who botched TWO occupations and sapped the US public of its willingness to engage in such costly ventures for at least a generation.

You forgot Million$ of dollars Washington and Red Cross collection$ gave to each families and had to sign an agreement not to sue. Few years ago, still 9 families were not accepting the ca$h and started a law suit. Never got anywhere, due to the same Kosher judge given the authority to solely hear all related Sept 11/01 cases. Fix?

Israel did sell nukes to south Africa.
Get this– Israel company was given the contract to crate and ship the missiles and nukes to USA to be destroyed. Last shipment container was loaded with concrete blocks. What do you think Washington did about it? Zip! I'm sorry, I can not stop laughing and how Americans are so stupid fools.

"The legacy of that terrible day has impacted not only our foreign policy, bequeathing to a new generation an apparently endless "war on terrorism," it also has led directly to what is arguably the most massive assault on our civil liberties since the Alien and Sedition Acts."

I think this is better understood as the excuse used, seized upon gleefully, by other interests to justify things they wanted all along. That gigantic Patriot Act appeared far too suddenly to have been written after the attack — it was sitting on a shelf as someone's wish list. Likewise the attack on Iraq was a project with many fathers, for which 9/11 was the excuse not the reason.

The 9/11 attack lingers on as the smokescreen. It is not cause. To explain or change any of this requires seeing the real causes. There are several, and they were pulled together, what was called "rallied around" the WMD in a similar context.

Yes, the Israel desire to make their war against the Palestinians into our war against all Muslims was a big part of it. The national security state was a big part of it, spinning on from wars on crime and drugs. The military complex seeking to use that magnificent military in what it thought would be a cost free replay of the Persian Gulf War was a big part of it, use it both to make the Middle East safe for Israel, and to occupy the Middle East with "enduring bases" just as it does Europe and Korea and Japan.

Yes it will cause an increase in donations. I was not planning on any further donations . This article changed my mind .
Justin should also have brought out as to why tower 7 collapsed when it was not hit, Even 1 and 2 should not have collapsed. Jet fuel does not burn hot enough to melt steel. The celebrating Mossad agents on the Jersey side as the planes hit the towers. The 4,000 Israel citizens who did not show up for work that day at WTC and numerous other points that indicate a Zionist conspiracy.
Hopefully some day the US public will wake up.

Great work. One tiny point: The natives of the area claimed by the al Saud clan should be referred to as subjects not "citizens". Although in existence since only the decade of the 1920s (when the British and French sowed the seeds of the Arab world's doom) the Kingdom is a genuinely medieval absolute monarchy that claims its rule by divine right.

Yep. That is what I'm saying. Obviously you have skipped the part about the fireman's statement about hearing an explosion from below and the floor buckling upwards. It sounds like a demolition to me. These people are capable of anything. PNAC (Wolfowitz, Perle and Cheney were discussing about how to galvanize the American people into getting into the Middle East, "something like Pearl Harbor."

Elements of the Bush Regime working with their Israeli counterparts were responsible for this.

Do you really believe a plot that intricate could be hatched and carried out in under eight months? No way. That means it began under Clinton. I suspect it was part of the pre-inaugural in-briefing he gave Bush. Recall how W showed absolutely zero shock (or even surprise) in that classroom when informed of the attacks. Let us also not forget that one of the most belligerent post-9/11 warmongers in Congress was Joe Lieberman (D-Tel Aviv), Al Gore's running mate.

In early September 2001, White House staff began taking a regimen of ciprofloxacin (Cipro), a powerful antibiotic; on September 11, staff accompanying Vice President Dick Cheney were given Cipro.[42] The public interest group Judicial Watch filed lawsuits in June 2002 against federal agencies to obtain information about how, what and when the White House knew on 9/11 about the danger of anthrax weeks before the first known victim of the anthrax attacks.

In all honesty I don't think so. Conflict oil is unreliable and investments that cost billions can be lost in a flash. Look at Libya, Iraq, and the Sudan? Vast potential profits are being lost because the product is so expensive. John D. Rockefeller became the richest man on earth in times of cheap oil. The whole world, especially business, benefits from cheap energy. Wars and sanctions against people like Russia and Iran are very bad for business.

What has to happen then according to you? Metal has to warm up a bit and the building goes down? Buildings are made to withstand fires, which is why you've never seen what you saw that day happen before in history…or since.

The official theory of 19 Arab hijackers led by a man in a cave knocking down three buildings with two airliners is impossible from many standpoints:

The "hijackers" were, at best, amateur pilots who could barely control a Cessna, yet they are said to have piloted large commercial airliners at air speeds (near sea level!) which exceeded their maximum operating speed, and perform miracles of aviation which experienced pilots with "time in type" could only duplicate in a simulator after repeated attempts and with great difficulty. The alleged maneuver involved in hitting the Pentagon is virtually impossible from an aviation standpoint.

The Twin Towers and WTC7 did not collapse. The towers exploded outwards-which should be obvious to anyone who views close up video footage of the "collapse"- with such force that large steel girders weighing several tons were EMBEDDED in surrounding buildings hundreds of yards away, after being ejected horizontally. This does not happen in a gravity collapse, nor does concrete pulverize in mid air.

WTC7 was a classic controlled demolition. Since NIST has now acknowledged that the building fell at free fall acceleration for at least two seconds, there is NO OTHER explanation for its implosion.

Vans circulating on the streets with a logo showing an airliner flying into the NY City skyline (one of which exploded, as per the audio recording of the NYPD radio transmissions- were traced to Urban Moving Systems, a Mossad front company headed by Dominick Suter, an Israeli national.
Two other vans, laden with explosives, were discovered by law enforcement near the Lincoln Tunnel and the George Washington Bridge.

Over a hundred Israeli nationals, including the "Dancing Israelis" arrested by East Rutherford New Jersey police after they were observed filming the attacks on the towers, high fiving one another and cheering-were detained in connection with the attacks. The FBI notes of their interrogation are heavily redacted, of course, and they were ordered released by senior officials in the DOJ, no doubt under orders from dual loyalist Michael Chertoff, then head of the Criminal Division.

The Saudi involvement was probably limited to financing the operation. Israeli operatives were hip deep in carrying out the actual attacks.

This has been non-stop drug smuggling and money laundering for the US Intelligence agencies in association with the banks…There was Nugan Hand with a stellar board of operatives… then there was BCCI with its intel and political connections and the two CIA rendition planes that went down south of the border and were full of drugs…And, everybody's favorite money laundering banks…who got a stern pat on the fanny for being on the other side of the `War on Drugs'…and lets not forget Mena, Clinton, Iran-Contra-Drug…etc. featuring a president whose own brother characterized as having a "nose like a vacuum cleaner." And, the great Eric Holder…gun running, money laundering and narcotics smuggling…while making sure the bankers escaped effective prosecution…

Despite all of the crazed theorizing by many commentators (above) Justin's main point rings true. Why is anything officially reported or investigated about 9/11 still redacted and censored? What happened to Obama's "most transparent presidency in history"?
This happened 13 years ago and no tactical "secrets" could possibly be at issue by now. The guilty parties know what they did and the official investigators know what they wrote. The only people still in the dark is the US (and other) publics. Suspicion runs rampant.
The US govt attacked two foreign nations (Iraq, Afghanistan) which were not shown to be responsible for these attacks (Afghanistan only harboring suspects) yet evidence of possibly foreign government official involvement, based on our own government's investigation, remains blacked out.
So the US attacks innocent nations but hides facts and conclusions about those officially suspected of guilt. How's that for justice?

I don't know when the planning started. I suspect it was before Silverstein bought the place.

There is a permanent governing elite in this country who decide things regardless of who is holding nominal power whether it is a drunken coke head or a prevaricating banker dog. 'W' looked like the deer in the headlights…like he was following a script…so everyone sat on their dead asses at the school until the script said "Go!"

The school visit put him out of the loop for operational responsibility for the response. Cheney in the bunker was at the heart of things and allowed the Pentagon strike. I would wager that the Pennsy plane was aimed at the Capitol. Then, it was off to the races for 'W' to meet with the WTC executives and 'Sage of Omaha' in Nebraska.

The building of the patsies legend of flight training etc. would be a step toward the fulfillment of a plan…when this came about, I don't know….

I don't think it's over till it's over. The US public may well be "sapped of its willingness to engage in such costly ventures" but perversity is the rule where military power is concerned. I don't think "a generation" is what it used to be – there are people coming into the pipeline all the time which could be induced to fight. The loss of an industrial base in the country, the influx of immigrants, are two of many factors which can induce people to sign up and fight again. Another fake terror attack (and they have been rehearsing hoaxes for some time now) would provide a new cause around which to rally. 9/11 happened half a generation ago. Like a big earthquake, another may be "due" just in time to send more Americans to an early death serving their masters, who conveniently print as much money as is needed. So far, the healthier parts of the world, including some of our allies, have not rung down the curtain on us, but they don't think we are all that we were anymore.

I'm actually glad that there are blocs in the world that aren't homogeneously trustful of the US. It makes it a little harder to shove through these new wars. But they are going to try, the neocons and others, they are going to try.

In fact, I think that in much of the US, people with half a brain are forced to use "doublethink" about the event, realizing that it is "de rigueur" to refer to Muslim terrorists as a continual threat (perhaps imagining that this has become at the least a self-fulfilling prophecy due to our aggression). In a curious way, one can feel some confidence while traveling that what was imagined happened never actually did. The intelligence people I knew in Washington never seemed to have a moment of qualm – after all a visit to a Europe cleared out of rube American tourists too scared to fly was probably regarded as a short-term benefit of the 9/11 hoax. But eventually, even rubes catch on and must be shocked and awed again. Wait for it.

Business isn't as straightforward and honest as it was before. When it comes to oil etc. it's the middle-men who get rich. Oil changes hands a bunch of times before it reaches its destination and everyone gets a cut. And the more expensive (paper) oil is, the richer some folks get. Unfortunately, wars and sanctions are good for some sectors. I still imagine that conflict oil is cheaper than regular oil. I mean, why would they pay official prices to IS and whatever thugs are running oil fields in Libya and Iraq these days.

I still can't figure out how the arab hijackers managed to bring 3 building down to foot print
You either take the pack and parcel that it is the saudis terrorist or it was a conspiracy.
We all know now that the building couldn't come down like a stone without controlled explosives.

And Israeli intel assets in Jersey…having a great time…posing for pictures with the smoking towers in the background…On Israeli TV, they related that they were 'there to document the event.' Then there were the Mossadis with the truckload of explosives…and the Israeli messaging company that got advance warning…One is as bad as the other…

Americans who vote for Democrats and Republicans are voting for those covering the tracks of the real murderers of over 3000 people in New York and thousands of First Responders who have died or will die as a result of the 9-11 attack.

This is the same right wing that shed alligator tears when the NWO folks and LBJ knocked off JFK–and then preach law and order. The border does need controlling–and neither the Democrats nor the Republicans want to do the job because they are both dedicated to the NAU.

With the NAU, they will play Hispanics against Anglos and move power further away from localities where the Corporations do their damage. The expenses imposed on communities by Obama and his Zionist masters is without precedent. The Union is already at an end. The question now is what are we going to do about it?–Continue to vote for the Zionist Demopublicans or try something intelligent for a change?

You must notice that you got 25 down votes. It's been 13 years now. The "Truthers" are nothing if not durable. Obsession and ignorance always are.

"Let it go already. Focus on reality."

Not gonna happen. The Truthers are too emotionally invested in the notion that they are superior, that they are "important", that they know a truth that others don't, and that they alone fight against the powers of darkness. They will never give it up. How can they? We live in a world where one must compete to accomplish something that we can then look back on and be proud of. Those who fail in this competition then seek some secret wisdom — some secret victory — on which to base their self-worth. Everyone wants to be a hero. Some people grow up, and accept the little moments of heroism gained in enduring the affronts of everyday life and fulfilling the responsibilities of adulthood. Others never do, and invent and inflate their fantasy heroism in battles against fantasy villains.

I messed with the Truthers for a long time, JCB. They made me crazy. Their self-delusion was — is — impenetrable. I wasted my time. Don't waste yours. The world's a tough place. Let the Truthers feel good about themselves. It's a small thing.

From the Cameron reports: "There is no indication that the Israelis were involved in the 9-11 attacks, but investigators suspect that the Israelis may have gathered intelligence about the attacks in advance, and not shared it."

I have no doubt that these Israeli spies were in the United States, and some may have had knowledge of the events and players leading up to 9-11. However, the implication of the Cameron Fox reports is that the Bush administration had no foreknowledge of 9-11 because some spies from Israel didn't tell them. It is a matter of public record that in 1995, Philippines police had found bojinka plots in the files of a computer used by Ramzi Yousef's group. One of those bojinka plots was "for several planes flying to the United States to be hijacked and flown into civilian targets," and the WTC in NYC was specifically mentioned as a target. Bojinka also came up in the trial of Ramzi Yousef, a conspirator in the 1993 WTC attack. See: "Western Intel Knew bin Laden's Plan Since 1995" from AFP & German newspaper Die Welt: http://www.rense.com/general17/westernintelknew.h…

A group of Israli "art students" come to his home purporting to sell him art. When his mother died he was denied the right to enter Palestine to attend her funeral by Israel. The people without a country play for keeps.

millions of americans know nothing about WTC7, & even less know about the following, which was gleaned by former MSM journo Daniel Hopsicker, in an interview with Mohamed Atta's girlfriend, Amanda Keller:

Daniel Hopsicker: “Top Ten Things You Never Knew About Mohamed Atta.”
NUMBER10: Mohamed Atta had an American girlfriend with whom he lived for two months in Venice, FL., a lingerie model named Amanda Keller. You haven’t heard her story because she was intimidated into silence by the FBI…
NUMBER 9: Mohamed Atta, Beastie Boys fan.
Atta often listened to them non-stop…ETC http://www.madcowprod.com/index60bb.html

how extraordinary no MSM picked up or followed up on Hopsicker's interview with Keller!

if the 3 towers fell for the official reasons given, then all high-rises worldwide would have had to have been evacuated while investigations & safety tests were carried out & remedial work done.

"if the 3 towers fell for the official reasons given, then all high-rises worldwide would have had to have been evacuated while investigations & safety tests were carried out & remedial work done."

That actually did happen apart from the evacuation, in case of all similar constructed high-rises. Especially regarding the fire-proofing and further simulations with multiple rapidly spreading fire sources. It's just not front-page news and it's ignored by most conspiracy websites.

Or you could accept the equally frightening theory that it was indeed possible to hijack and steer large planes without that much training or expertise. And that multiple large and intense fires can bring such buildings down if not controlled. This is an expert judgement and despite all the remaining question marks, I'd personally go with the expert judgements which are worldwide near to unanimous: the fires could very well cause the collapses exactly as happened, with the energies unleashed perfectly explaining the type of collapse and violent enegies. Just punch in the numbers and realize the energy of a collapsing skyscraper. It's a shock when we realize the world around us is not as invulnerable as we believed. That any idiot can wreck it if he tries really hard. Personally I rather not think about the many ways things can collapse around us when pushed far enough by a crazy few, which includes politicans and shadowy intelligent agencies of course.

In the immediate aftermath of 9-11, much of the news reporting was quite good, as highlighted throughout these comments and in JRs piece.

One other "detail" is a People magazine profile of many of the survivors of the destruction, including one man, who worked in the executive offices of either building 1 or 2 who said that there were evacuation drills going on a week before the attacks, and regular ones at that–he said that such drills were not the norm and that this struck him as very unusual. The gent's name was "Ben" or something–I haven't the article just now in front of me–but it was in People magazine, and can be found on the Internet. Highly interesting.

For an excellent overview on the intelligence that our great and good ally had about the impending attacks, please look into the work of the late investigative journalist Michael C Ruppert. Fascinating stuff–it's all there

No, they are not unanimous. There is a strong contingent that support what you are saying, but that does not make for worldwide unanimity. The NIST and the one MIT professor and Popular Science–all of whom/which take your side (on the fire argument)–have been answered point for point by the architects and engineers group.

You must look at these counter-arguments to the fire theory.

As has been said many times, "intesification of fire" does not happen. Burning jet fuel does not exceed certain degrees. And no building in modern history has ever collapsed as a result of fire.

The other point is–look at the collapse. That is a free fall collapse–straight down, at the speed of gravit. Had it been fire, huge amounts of building would have melted off and broken off in massive, massive loads, the building effectively breaking apart.

No, I am sorry. "Most" do not agree. Many more disagree. Look at the number of architects and engineers who have joined that group for 9-11 truth—they write excellent essays on this issue that MUST be read.

As for those who agree with the official line, one can reasonably assume that they do not want their careers jeopordize for their names beiing attached to that investigative group (I do not say "conspiracy theorists"–they are investigators). After all, kwazy Larry Silverstein might have them "pulled" or something like that

"That actually did happen apart from the evacuation, in case of all similar constructed high-rises. Especially regarding the fire-proofing and further simulations with multiple rapidly spreading fire sources. It's just not front-page news and it's ignored by most conspiracy websites."

funny that u did not provide any links to support your claim. i know of no such action being taken.

the Highrise Safety Iinitiiative, sponsored by NYCcan.org, whose lead spokesperson is Bob McIlvaine, who lost his son Bobby in the North Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11, is presently trying to deali with this matter, 13 years later.

Knowing how extremely careful the USG is in handling anything Israel, i would say the hidden pages are also watered down to the extreme. Well never know the full truth even if these pages were made public. There only way is for a patriot to come forward and talk and I don't think the US has anymore patriots in high places. Almost all castrated by zion.

You are attributing to pride that which is provable by objective measure (which you must realize politicians are always loathe to do- preferring their toadies to give them a talking point answer rather than reality).

"Eppure si muove" is what Galileo said when charged by authority for denying the centrality of the earth in the universe, something their theology demanded.

Yes, facts are stubborn things and "truthers" who seek facts could be making you crazy – or perhaps dogma like yours is also hard to shed, and it feels crazy when you try to do it.

This article is laughable for its author's naivete, unless it is despicable for its authors' hypocrisy. Missing is the elephant in the room: the essence of 9/11 as a false flag, as anyone with a not-below-normal intelligence can understand by watching closely for a few minutes the video record of the destruction of the twin towers–not to mention Building 7–can understand.

The cover-up of the twin towers'–against not to mention Building 7's–criminal controlled demolition is amateurish, from the elaboration of Osama bin Laden's aerial ballet to technical investigations that a smart high school kid can falsify in minutes. Therefore, it is quickly evident, going to the article's title, that foreign governments did facilitate 9/11. All the governments ostensibly opposed to the Bush neoconservative hegemony and its continuation under Obama could effortlessly denounce 9/11 and form a loose coalition to educate the world on 9/11's essence, yet chose to treat the superstitious attribution of 9/11 to Osama bin Laden's hijackers as some absolute, axiomatic truth. Even governments with a vested interest in blowing the 9/11 whistle, in Cuba, Venezuela, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Iran, North Korea, Russia, have taken in stride the U.S. wrath and watered their citizens with crocodile tears on the U.S. bellicosity.

Of course 9/11 was largely a foreign job. The project to demolish the twin towers with cameras rolling and hide it under a transparent cover could not be launched without the prior commitment of foreign governments, especially "rogue" and "enemy" governments. 9/11, in final analysis, was less an inside job than a Castro/Chavez/Saddam/Ahmadinejad/Gaddafi/Putin/etc. job. Their contributions to the 9/11 censorship were key to 9/11's success.

Yes, Israel and SA were involved in the attacks, but the plan came from Cheney et. al., in my opinion. Including Isreal and AS just provides the people inside the USG who pulled it off two parties to throw under the bus if any investigation ever gets close to the truth. If any congressional investigation ever got close, just throw them the Saudi folks. It the investigation gets farther, then throw them the Israelis. It's all to provide a multi-tiered fire-break to throw off the scent if things every got hot, though I would be very, very surprised if things ever got hot for these folks. This country is comatose. I don;t see them having anything to worry about.

The reason I am very suspicious of this "missing pages" story is because I believe israel was directly involved in 9-11 and our government knew very well they were. They partnered with our government to carry it out just like the USS Liberty was also a partnership false flag between israel and the US government. There is no way they would allow any paper trail evidence to exist that indicates israel. I suspect those "missing 28 pages" are a decoy and a distraction to get us side tracked into suspecting the Saudis instead of israel. Since israel was involved there would not be a "28 pages" in the first place if those pages mentions israel.

Besides, what ever is in the so called "missing pages" still does not explain why there were explosions in the WTC buildings which is what really brought them down in the first place. Or why building 7 collapsed when no plane ever touched it.

You mean coward-in-chief George Bush sitting on the Truman balcony on 9/12 smoking Cohiba's with the Saudi Ambassador while flying Saudi VIPs out of the country was just a coincidence?

Hamas has never intentionally attacked a US target. Israel attacked US targets in Egypt as part of a false flag operation. Johnson let the criminal invaders attack the Liberty in 1967. The Israelis have been trying to get their spy put of US prisons when he destroyed US assets in Russia. etc etc. Israel is a clear and present danger to the US.

I think the Israelis knew something, but it really wasn't a difficult plan & 1 out of the 4 planes didn't even get where it was going at that. "Steal planes someone else piloted into the air & smash them into 3 of the world's largest buildings by surface area" is actually a pretty simple plan. You know how you know if you're on target to hit something in an airplane cockpit? It's in front of you.

Yes, metal warms up to fractions of its melting point & can only hold a fraction of the weight it otherwise could if there isn't a fire around it. That's exactly correct. I see that a couple of generations of attack on school budgets have worked magic here in the USA.

Plenty of steel framed buildings have had partial or total collapse due to fire:

"The McCormick Center in Chicago and the Sight and Sound Theater in Pennsylvania are examples of steel structures collapsing. The theater was fire protected using drywall and spray on material. A high rise in Philly didn't collapse after a long fire but firefighters evacuated the building when a pancake structural collapse was considered likely. Other steel-framed buildings partially collapsed due fires one after only 20 minutes.

The steel framed McCormick Center was at the time the World's largest exhibition center. It like the WTC used long steel trusses to create a large open space without columns. Those trusses were unprotected but of course much of the WTC lost it's fire protection due to the impacts.

"As an example of the damaging effect of fire on steel, in 1967, the original heavy steel-constructed McCormick Place exhibition hall in Chicago collapsed only 30 minutes after the start of a small electrical fire." …"

Jet fuel – and regular old office building fires – do burn hot enough to weaken steel or any other metal so that it loses structural integrity. Anyone who thinks steel or any other metal needs turn liquid (melt) to lose its capacity to keep a building intact is flat out science illiterate. I'd welcome anyone to look up readily available tables of how much capacity to retain weight metals lose when heated to certain percentages of melt point below 100%.

I sense a huge amount of racism in the idea that Arabs "can't" figure out how to do something as simple as crash planes into buildings. Al Qaeda itself was pleasantly surprised with how much damage the crashes had in NY.

I also have to ask the people who doubt the planes brought down the buildings – do you seriously think no one in the Arab world has cause for this sort of attack, after everything you read on this site & others year after year? Wall St & the Pentagon murder Arabs left & right and some people want both revenge & to destroy their oppressors.

As far as Buiilding 7 – read the report on that as part of the 3-part explanation of the WTC attacks on CounterPunch by an actual engineer. CounterPunch is as strong an anti-war, anti-Zionist site as it gets.

No, it is not possible for amateur pilots with no time in type to do what the alleged hijackers are said to have done, for the simple reason that the aircraft (said to be commercial airliners) cannot fly at the air speeds established by the NTSB for UA175 and AA11; the engines could not generate sufficient thrust due to the air density; not to mention that the amateur pilots, one of whom could not control a Cessna, would positively not be able to perform miracles of aviation which experienced pilots with time in type were not able to replicate in a simulator.

It is also important to recall that the energy of the "collapsing" skyscraper would be transferred to the more massive stable structure underlying it; the structural steel was much thicker and stronger at the base of the towers than it was near the top. Besides, a gravity collapse would not account for steel girders weighing tons to be violently ejected horizontally and embedding themselves in the concrete of surrounding buildings.

The real "conspiracy theory" is the official 9-11 commission report. Over two thousands scientists, engineers, pilots, government officials, and other experts in the field have come forth questioning that report saying nearly every claim in it is lies and are demanding a new independent investigation into the events of 9-11 must be allowed to take place.

So of course zionist hypocrite criminals are not sleeping well at night because they see that more and more people are waking up to what is really going on.

Israel tried the same thing back in 67 when it tried to sink the USS Liberty and blame it on an Arab country to try and draw the US into israel's wars with israel's enemies. Americans would not have supported a war against the Arab countries back then unless Americans were made to hate the Arabs and see them as a threat. It almost succeeded but the Liberty's captain survived and managed to save the ship. There were to many survivors who lived to eventually tell the truth about what happened to them that day. So israel's plan failed. Fast forward to 2001 when it tried the same plan again on a much larger scale. It did not fail the second time and managed to win all the support it needed for megga wars in the mid east.

One to line the pockets of Bush and Co. and two to give israel what its always wanted. As many dead Arab people as possible.

There will be no real future for peace in our world as long as israel exists as it does today. It is nothing but a criminal entity that never should have been allowed to come into being in the first place and has never been nor is now our "friend". It is a silent and deadly enemy that sucks the blood out of us and uses us to commit its horrible crimes against humanity. Not only does it hold the Palestinian people, who managed to avoid being forced out of their lands back in 1948, hostage but it also has an iron arm over all our political leaders and our communications system the main stream media and Hollywood which also greatly influences the masses in the US.

It is the greatest threat to our nation as we have ever had and the most dangerous because it keeps our people disillusioned though many are now waking up to it.

It is a great enemy to us not friend. It is a threat. Both foreign and domestic.

McCormick Center was a warehouse building housing flammable displays built more than 10 years before WTC and only the roof partially collapsed.

The official 9/11 story doesn't provide enough energy to account for the results–complete free fall destruction, molten steel, molten concrete. It's that simple. At best you would have expected the upper floors to collapse in part and maybe some floors below. Building 7 is a different story, it wasn't even hit by an aircraft or doused with plane fuel.

We obviously don't know the extent of israel's involvement. They make an appearance in the diversionary event and apparently knew what the result of the day would be. We don't know much about those responsible for the actual demolitions. Or how those relate to the participants of the show event.

What would you "expect" based in what engineering background of yours?

Please share with everyone your proof that heat below melting points doesn't weaken metals; there should be at least one Nobel in that for you since you'll be rewriting our understanding of science,

Every building houses something inflammable.

"doesn't provide enough energy" – what are you talking about? Do you have any idea what the potential energy built up in structures that size is (if this is what you mean, it's difficult to sift through the nonsense)?

What leads you to believe that demolished buildings should expect to have melting metal whereas a building set alight by a jet fuel fire would not? Is it normal for imploded buildings to have molten metals at the base?

How are you defining 'freefall'? What would expect to happen, given your engineering expertise? Please explain to us why controlled demolitions begin from the bottom & the WTC towers collapsed from the top.

And do be sure to tell us why you're upset with Israel for at least allowing something to happen you simultaneously believe not to be possible. In fact, while you're at it why don't you tell us why anyone would need an airplane cover story for terrorist attacks. Why not just detonate bombs & tell the public Islamic terrorists were responsible? While you're at it, why don't you tell us why when the targets of Israel & the neo-cons are Iran, what was left of Iraq, the Palestinians, Syria, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Sudan & Libya that the passports & other identities you believe were concocted were of people FROM NONE OF THOSE PLACES. This is one massively stupid plan.

__[[on 9/11, hours after theFAA grounded all civilian flights to and from the United States, a full El Al Boeing 747 took off from JFK bound for Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport

"The flight departed JFK at 4:11 pm and its departure was, according to the El Al sources, authorized by the direct intervention of the U.S. Department of Defense. U.S. military officials were on the scene at JFK and were personally involved with the airport and air traffic control authorities to clear the flight for take-off]]__http://911blogger.com/news/2010-03-16/full-el-al-…

Arguing with Truthers is like arguing with (ironically) religious fundamentalists about evolution. No matter how much plain fact & science is presented, an overriding belief in something for which there's no proof makes any rational, orderly presentation of a narrative impossible.

There are always claims of 'gaps in the fossil record' or of things that very evidently happened being 'impossible,' (evolution of the eye for example) despite these things only being 'impossible' in the mind of someone with limited scientific horizons.

Beyond this both the Truther & the anti-evolution zealot derive victory from still being in the game at all, bending any discussion of the topic to their pet hypotheses. Both are also enormous distractions & wastes of time & resources.

Truthers heed a call to helplessness, the idea that the Empire isn't really able to be defeated, that only the Empire can defeat the Empire (subtext: only white people are smart enough to harm white people). So here we are on an ant-war site having an argument that leads to nothing beyond discussing, if we believe the Truthers, how the Empire is too powerful to be fought, instead of discussing how to dismantle the war machine.

We know that 4 airplanes were hijacked (there's a very long history of hijackings by groups without many military resources; it's not a particularly difficult thing to do especially pre-9/11). Three of them made it to their crash targets (i.e THREE OF THE LARGEST SURFACE AREA BUILDINGS ON THE PLANET, not a hard thing to hit). The most difficult aspects of piloting are taking off & landing & the hijackers didn't have to do either.

As I keep pointing out, you line a plane up to hit something by keeping it in front of you. How great of a driver does one need to be to drive a car into the Great Wall of China?

There's a three part series written by an actual engineer on the WTC on CounterPunch. That's an extreme antiwar, anti-Zionist site that often carries articles by many of the libertarian authors people around here like. One of the articles is on Building 7's fire specifically; the building was set alight by burning portions of one of the taller towers dropping on to it. This is not only easily to understand for anyone who wants to, but also blows up the Truther notion that all of the WTC tower debris "fell into its own footprint," although naturally the vast majority did when that 'footprint' is a city block long.

There's a deep-seated racism in the assumption that no brown people could possible harm the Great White Chief, with his mighty military machines and James Bond-like spy agencies. Only the Great White Chief can harm the Great White Chief, so says the 9/11 conspiracy buff. This is a similar meme to that of the JFK conspiracies; only the US government is capable of taking out the head of the US government.

Sad to say the vast majority of the American left (or "left") has internalized the notions that the Pentagon and CIA or NSC etc. are capable of doing what they claim when they ask for most of our money come federal budget time. They can't, and usually don't.

The fact of the matter is that the military and spy agencies are not equipped to protect American citizens, not trained to protect American citizens and are likely fairly indifferent about protecting American citizens. Our "defense" budget is for offense. They are only there to destroy other countries, and generally choose ones that don't have comparatively much with which to defend themselves. And they still struggle against vastly disadvantaged opponents.

That the American civilian is protected at all – and certainly not from poverty, ignorance, ill health or police abuse – we can pin upon the the presence of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and shared borders with Canada and Mexico. (Yes, Mexico. People come to work. We ship the guns and drug money in that direction. We need to be warned by our own government to stop bringing weapons into Mexico.)

The fact of the matter is that the US military and spy agencies, despite getting half or better of the discretionary federal budget of the world's largest economy over the past half century, are a bunch of losing losers who lose. Let's examine the track record:

- Lost in Vietnam, despite outspending and outbombing – many times over – a nation of subsistence farmers.

- Losing currently in Afghanistan. Just fuckin' losing. No plan, no clue.

- Three words: Bay of Pigs.

- Had to pay people literal pallets of money to stop getting their butts kicked in Iraq; lost influence in Iraq to Iran, which was pretty much 180 degrees opposite of the direction they hoped things would go.

- The Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for keeping New Orleans… um…. land. How has that been working out?

- First the CIA is unable to stave off the Iranian Revolution, then they get captured as hostages, then the US military can't rescue them because they forgot there's sand in the desert.

- They lost all of southern Africa to Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela… while the latter was in prison.

- Beirut, Marines, car bomb.

- Local Somalian street punks brought down our billion-dollar helicopters with the hand-held weapons they casually bring to wedding celebrations, defeated "elite" army units and then gleefully dragged the dead through their streets.

Such is the partial track record of America's military-spook complex. Despite determined brown people with limited resources kicking the Great White Chief square in the testicles on a regular basis, the 9/11 conspiracy fixationist believes the Pentagon lie that they are the model of efficiency and the world standard of military excellence. (If this is the case, one might well ask, why is there an entire goddamn city named after Ho Chi Minh..?)

Years of Hollywood movies – movies that the Pentagon greenlights scripts of as a requirement of cooperating with producers in lending military equipment and access – have convinced the 9/11 cretins of American military superiority and the silly notion that our spies are superhero-like high-tech ninjas. They aren't.

When the Average Brown Man with his knife outsmarts Great White Chief and his billion dollar death machines, 9/11 minds go all sideways and construct Rube Goldberg mechanisms for why what obviously happened "couldn't possibly" have happened. This is a psychological problem for the believer and need not be a political problem for the rest of us.

There was a time when the left might be heartened by the thought that 19 determined individuals lacking even one gun could enact a simple and direct enough plan to put a hole in the fucking Pentagon. These days what passes for the "progressive" in this country shrinks from the possibilities that plain fact suggests – the call to action if we're honest, jihadists inadvertently providing proof to America's beleaguered secular humanists that all is not lost and that 90% of success is showing up. Because the imperative is unlikely to disappear – and this would mean work, patience, risk and sacrifice – the facts need to be tossed.

This shrinking from responsibility and intellectual honesty leads us into mom's basement, where we peer in at the archetypical 9/11 conspiracy hack getting Dorito stains on the keyboard while misapplying a substandard math and physics education to YouTube videos with added commentary by another science-illiterate basement dweller. It's a moron circle jerk.

Some day these folks will take all their data and band together and… and… ah, but there isn't any plan, is there? The smug, vague sense of superiority, reinforced by the likewise deluded, is all there is.

It's no accident that these people choose to believe the debilitating notion that only the Pentagon can attack the Pentagon; the realization that this has been proven to be untrue leads directly to a moral imperative to get off of the sofa and do something risky. Why do that when you can tweet, blog or tumble that you Know the Real Truth? This isn't politics, it's play therapy.
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Many white people also prefer to believe UFO beings built the pyramids in Egypt and the Americas, because Average Brown Man "couldn't possibly" have figured out how to do that. Only the Great White Chief and supersonic space aliens are smart enough to put rocks on top of other rocks such they don't topple over.

You have to have a deeply embedded set of racist assumptions to think that extraterrestrials were more likely to travel to Earth to pile up rocks in the shape of a pyramid – aliens who construct interstellar spacecraft couldn't do better than that? – than non-Europeans.

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A common refrain of the 9/11 conspiracy mouthbreather is that World Trade Center 7 (WTC 7 or "Building 7") is a debate ender. I actually love it for rhetorical purposes when WTC 7 gets brought up, and replied recently on the CommonDreams boards to a 9/11 ultra whose entire post by way of counterargument was "Building 7" as follows:

But let's pretend that you know better than someone with actual engineering credentials. Let's pretend that's all fakey-fake and CounterPunch is in on the conspiracy or Mr. Garcia's just mean & stupid.

You still have some outstanding questions I ask in all these threads that none of you touch:

– Why attack WTC 7, a building no one had heard of, to inflame war passions, as if WTC 1 AND WTC 2 AND the Pentagon AND another airplane weren't enough? What sense does this make? Was WTC 7 a cherished American icon?

– If one is going to use planes as a cover for using explosives to bring down buildings or hit them with missiles, why did no plane hit WTC 7? Isn't that just a silly, stupid plan?

– If one is going to bring down WTC 7 without claiming an airplane hitting it, why have it fall AFTER the TV cameras are already nearby, and not FIRST to have the TV cameras on hand for the planes you claim were faked? In fact why space the two planes far enough apart in time for us to have footage from so many angles? …

– If this were a set-up to frame Iraq, why not make ONE of the detailed falsifications of the hijackers you claim don't exist either an Iraqi or someone who spent ANY time there? Why make them from US government ALLIES in the region?

Needless to say no 9/11 headcase will attempt answering any of those questions with anything approaching integrity. In order for the conspiracy buff to feel superior (all this is about, really), they must construct a vision in their head of the conspirators being highly intelligent and efficient. There's no point in defeating (not in real life like the African National Congress mind you, just in one's internal fantasy life in mom's basement) the right wing cabal unless they establish how powerful and smart and slick that cabal is.

And then they must construct a shitstain of one motherfucking idiotic unworkable plan, just so massively stupid, that even they can "unravel" it Da Vinci Code-style, and assign this turd to the government they simultaneously believe is too powerful to be stopped.

If you're finding it difficult to argue with "Truthers" it could be because you quickly make the argument personal, resort to name-calling, demand to see engineering degrees (without mentioning your engineering background), feign ignorance about basic concepts and so on. Now you add religion and evolution, how does that advance the issue? And I apologize for this little rant. I for one dislike making arguments personal.

The facts that you present so far are limited to a counterexample that doesn't share enough in common with the matter at issue to be relevant, and a chart that may or may not be relevant depending on whether the "steel" referred to in the chart is the same as the one used for the WTC buildings.

Now, if you are seriously interested in this issue, then I trust you'll take a look at this site:http://www.ae911truth.org/
That's more than two thousand architects and engineers for 9/11 truth. They give talks around the country, I'm sure they'll be glad to address your concerns.

I was hoping to hear more about israel and Saudi Arabia in your explanation since you seem to accept the official story of the buildings' destruction but somehow want israel involved, which isn't at all part of the official story. According to pilots though, what the hijackers did that day isn't quite as easy. It's not as simple as driving into a wall. The Pentagon crash in particular required one hell of a piloting maneuver.

You do make a good point though about some inherent contradictions in the unofficial accounts and so on. And I haven't read enough about all the aspects of 9/11 to know if someone has a single coherent vision of it all. I suspect though that the attempt to come up with one single theory with one single perpetrator and one single motive is what leads to problems. As we saw with the Iraq war, there are several players involved with several motives but who can come together for a single destructive project.

Yes, with Saudis/UAE/Israel being involved for what is the results in Middle East being in flame while ISIS stealing people's oil and saling it to NY, Texas, Turkish Erdogan government, Kurdish Barzani kingdom, Jordanian kingdom regime and Saudis. If you noticed the change in gas prices in last two monthes then you should know that oil companies like Exxon, BP, Chevron and others hand in hand with all the above governments are up to their neck involved when they created the 9/11.

Nice try, burying whatever point you're trying to make in a repetitive and tedious retelling of history. All you're doing is parroting left wing gatekeeper nonsense.

Government competence or lack of such is completely irrelevant to the point at hand.

Your credentialism notwithstanding, concrete does not pulverize in midair, nor does a hydrocarbon based fire burning on a few floors cause global failure of the structural steel in a massive concrete and steel skyscraper.

Amateur pilots who cannot successfully land a Cessna cannot possibly perform miracles of aviation with commercial airliners at speeds which exceed their maximum operating capacity at or near sea level and which even experienced pilots with time in type – one of which actually flew the SAME aircraft claimed to be UA 175, could not duplicate in a simulator- under fail conditions.

And NIST DID admit free fall acceleration for WTC 7; anyone who watches the collapse of WTC7-including the European demolition expert, Danny Jowenko cannot but conclude that the building was brought down by controlled demolition. It could not have been brought down by any other means- except a miracle, of course.

I don't watch Hollywood movies, and I don't believe that the American military is omnicompetent.
Anyone who studies military history would know that the US almost always relies on numerical superiority and superior firepower, not on strategic brilliance, as was evinced by the incompetent "Broad Front" strategy of Eisenhower on the Western Front in the Second World War.

Out of all of our commanders, Patton was the one the Wehrmacht feared the most, and even he conceded- after the war was concluded- that we fought on the wrong side.

You are unable to articulate a single argument from a physical/ factual basis! I know this may be difficult for you to understand, but physical facts trump social theory. No murder investigation would ignore physical evidence in deference to hackneyed sociological theories or psychological speculation.

Here are some questions:

Does concrete pulverize in mid air?

Will a hydrocarbon based fire cause molten metal, observed flowing out of the Twin Towers?

Will the same type of fire burning on a few upper floors cause a massive 100 story plus steel and concrete skyscraper with a massive structural steel core to experience instantaneous global support failure, explode outwards, hurl huge steel girders in a horizontal trajectory at speeds exceeding 60 miles an hour ?

Do steel and concrete skyscrapers with fires raging on a few floors, with different levels of intensity and in entirely different areas, experience symmetrical, instantaneous failures in their structural steel and perfectly mimic one another's "collapse"?

Will a hydrocarbon based fire EVAPORATE structural steel and cause the formation of free iron particles?

Can the engines of a Boeing 767 generate enough thrust at or near sea level to fly at an air speed of 546 miles per hour?

Can the titanium engines of a Boeing 757 be destroyed by glass and concrete?

Can a Boeing 757 be flown in a maneuverable fashion below tree top level at any speed other than landing speed?

Were Israeli elements involved operationally? That's as certain as any inferred conclusion about 9/11 gets. Was 9/11 initiated by Israel? I doubt it. Why? Because it's just too big. They may be ruthless, they may be vicious; they are not suicidal, and doing 9/11 without the overt consent of at least a powerful faction within the U.S. national security establishment strikes me as being flat-out suicidal. Now it is entirely possible, likely actually, that Israel was prime contractor, so to speak, for some or all of concept, design and execution of 9/11, but IMO that's all they were. Hired help. Cutouts. And as that last, in extremis, fall guys.

That's another things the Truthers do that's the same as what the anti-evolution people do, you drag out a very tiny % of people with credentials in a field to claim that most people in the field agree with you.

"The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) estimates the number of architects licensed in the United States at 105,847." … "It is estimated that there are more than two million practicing engineers in the U.S."

That's just in this country. So any list of 'architects and engineers' 2000 long represents only 0.00095% of the architects & engineers in the US alone, never mind the other 95% of the planet. To call that a minority is an extreme understatement.

One is reminded that more biologists named Steve signed a petition in support of evolution than biologists could be found to sign one questioning evolution.

I'll further state that you should be a rock star in the field if you're going to be calling most of the people in the field a bunch of liars or incompetents, whereas no credentials are necessary to accept the reality of events as understood by the overwhelming majority of professionals in the field.

You might note that the Pentagon pilot slightly miscalculated & skidded into the building as opposed to hitting it directly. Truthers tend not to mention that; if a missile hit the Pentagon it wasn't working particularly well, now, was it?

And why would it be necessary to *demolish* the buildings to incite war fever? You think hijacking 4 planes & killing a thousand people & attacking the Pentagon & the WTC minimally wouldn't be ENOUGH?!

You're tying to imply with no justification that all other thousands of architects and engineers agree with the official story and therefore the 2000 have to be rejected, without even considering what they have to say. If we are going to play number games, the 2000 is more than your single engineer who backs the official story of building 7. I never claimed that most people in the field agree with me. But it's the science that matters, not how many you have on your team. Majorities can be wrong, you know–assuming the majority has looked into the official story in detail and accepts it. I for one suspect there is no such consensus.

A "slight miscalculation" doesn't make the maneuver any less complicated, it would show in fact that it was a challenging maneuver.

Like I said before, a common error is to think of 9/11 in terms of a single purpose. I'm sure Larry Silverschtein and some other folks could give you a couple of billion (or is it trillion) reasons why it was "necessary" to demolish the buildings.

Justin Raimondo is the editorial director of Antiwar.com, and a senior fellow at the Randolph Bourne Institute. He is a contributing editor at The American Conservative, and writes a monthly column for Chronicles. He is the author of Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement [Center for Libertarian Studies, 1993; Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2000], and An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard [Prometheus Books, 2000].